Life-size Obama statue stolen from woman's porch in Wilkes-Barre

“What are they going to do, pawn it? I'm the only one here with that. People are crazy,” she said in her home Tuesday.

Since July 2013, the residents of Rita Street have seen Bruce decorate her life-size statue of President Barack Obama for holidays. On Christmas, she dresses Obama as Santa Claus. For Thanksgiving, she puts pumpkins around his bench on the front porch. Her five young children love the statue, and can't believe that it's gone. Bruce said she had a hard time breaking the news to her children when they came home.

“That's the first thing that came out of their mouths. 'What did you do with Obama?'” Bruce said about the missing statue.

Bruce, 30, a landlord and employee at Keystone Automotive Industries, said she noticed the theft over the weekend, when her friend's children had walked over to help out around the house.

“I was like, 'What? Get out of here, Obama's always on my porch,'” Bruce said, describing her initial reaction. She said she was so startled by the theft that she was hospitalized for a panic attack.

At first, Bruce looked all over the house, thinking that someone had hidden the Obama statue somewhere as a prank. To make matters worse, her home security cameras had been malfunctioning for over a month.

“I was so mad,” Bruce said. “If I get him back, I'm going to tie him down.”

She said she purchased the Obama statue at Ashley Furniture in July 2013 after months of deliberation. When she first saw it, the sticker price was $1,300. Bruce said the original price was too high, but she kept calling the store to check on the statue.

“Every day almost, I'd call and ask 'Is it there? Is it there?'” Bruce said. Months later, she bought it during a clearance sale for $500.

Bruce said she's been planning to buy a Hillary Rodham Clinton statue to sit with Obama on the front porch, but after the recent theft, she's having second thoughts.

“I want her with a martini glass, smiling,” she said. “I don't know if I'm going to get it now.”